Last suspect sentenced in NJ child sex case

TRENTON, N.J. (AP) — A New Jersey man initially accused of participating in the alleged gang-rape of a 7-year-old girl after her 15-year-old stepsister sold her for sex has been sentenced to three years of probation.

Twenty-one-year-old Gregory Leary of Trenton was among six people charged after the younger girl was allegedly assaulted at a party in a Trenton apartment building in March 2010.

Five of the six were eventually offered pleas bargains to lesser charges after the case unraveled. Authorities lacked DNA evidence to prosecute, and the older girl gave varying accounts of what supposedly happened.

Leary, who was 20 at the time, pleaded guilty last month to child endangerment charges for bringing the girls to the vacant apartment where the party was held. He spent seven months in jail before he could post bond.